Brain Games May Cut Alzheimer's Risk < Jan. 25, 2012 > -- Staying active mentally when you're young and middle-aged may help protect your brain against the ravages of Alzheimer's disease later in life. Researchers at the University of California Berkeley found that activities like reading, writing, and playing games as a young or middle-aged adult seemed to prevent the buildup of a brain protein linked to Alzheimer's. Although studies haven't proved that the protein, called beta-amyloid, actually ...

For Your Child Diagnosis of Autism Varies Widely Across U.S. Researchers have found that health care providers at different autism centers are inconsistent in determining whether a child should be diagnosed with autistic disorder or a subtype, such as Asperger syndrome. The findings, researchers say, give support to the idea that everyone who meets certain criteria be given the same designation of "autism spectrum disorder," instead of subcategories such as Asperger. The treatment is the same, whether t...

Mind and Body Do Certain Blood Types Boost Stroke Risk? In an intriguing study, researchers found that people with blood type AB had a 26 percent increased risk for stroke compared with those with blood type O. And in women with type B blood, researchers noted a 15 percent greater risk for stroke. Eight blood types In general, people can have one of eight possible blood types: O positive or negative; A positive or negative; B positive or negative; or AB positive or negative. Type O is the most common bl...

Heart Care Drugs for Adult ADHD Safe for the Heart Young and middle-aged adults taking drugs for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) don't seem to have an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a new study. This is good news, doctors say, because it reduces concerns about whether these medications cause high blood pressure and increased heart rates. "The results of our study do not support an increased risk of myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death, or stroke associated...

Fewer Drowning Deaths, Injuries in Kids < Jan. 18, 2012 > -- The number of drowning-related deaths among children has fallen dramatically since the early 1990s. And researchers say it's because parents have gotten the word that water safety is critical. "There have been efforts at education from a variety of groups," says study author Stephen Bowman, Ph.D., at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "One would think that those messages are getting across." The study, published in the journal Pediat...

Men's Health Fitness May Trump Weight for Good Health Question: Which is more important for health, how much your weigh or how fit you are? If you picked fitness, you're in agreement with a study that compared how weight and fitness stacked up for men's overall health. And that conclusion - that fitness matters more than how much you weigh - is counter to the prevailing assumption about weight and health. Important results "We all tend to assume that it's weight loss and obesity and seeing a change in p...

Helping Others to Help Yourself < Jan. 04, 2012 > -- Practicing random acts of kindness can help you feel good about yourself - and may actually improve depression and other mood disorders. Called "positive activity interventions," acts as seemingly trivial as counting your blessings or writing a thank-you note may serve as an effective, low-cost treatment for depression, says Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., at the University of California-Riverside. "For a depressed person, they aren't trivial at all,"...

Women's Health HPV Test Finds Cervical Cancer Earlier The human papillomavirus (HPV) test is better than the traditional Pap test alone as a screening tool for cervical cancer - both in the short and long term, researchers say. Nearly all cervical cancer is caused by HPV, a sexually transmitted disease. So screening for HPV can help detect precancerous changes or lesions in the cervix before they become cancer. One or both tests Dutch researchers evaluated nearly 45,000 women, ages 29 to 56. Women in on...

Mind and Body Older Runners Still Use Oxygen Efficiently As runners age, they don't lose their ability to use oxygen economically. That's the good news. Where older runners fall short is in upper-body strength and flexibility. In a recent study, upper-body strength and flexibility in runners ages 60 and older were about half of what younger runners have. Less upper-body strength means that older runners have less "drive" in their in their arms, particularly when running uphill. Less flexibility can affe...

For Your Child Preemie's Nervous System May Raise Risk for SIDS Premature infants are at higher risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) than full-term babies. The reason may be that a preemie's nervous system is underdeveloped. Australian researchers conducted sleep tests on 25 premature infants and 31 full-term infants and found that the baroreflex mechanism, which controls blood pressure, may not be fully functioning in preemies. As a result, the reflex may not respond quickly enough if blood pre...

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